Hi friends! Happy Friday! What do you have going on this weekend? It’s Rodeo Break (it’s an AZ thing and I love it), so the kids are off school. We’re just enjoying some Tucson adventures, fun with friends, and enjoying this spring-like weather. Sending some sunshine to my freezing friends right now!

I’m doing a round of the EquiLife detox right now and feeling amazing. I was planning on starting with our community in January, but everyone else in the house got sick with a cold/virus, so I stopped after one day. I needed to shift my focus to immunity, and was able to stay healthy while I took care of everyone else.

Now that the retirement is over and things are a little more calm, it was a good opportunity to hop into it for 14 days. You can read more about my previous detox experiences here. This one focuses on high nutrients and lots of fresh, whole foods, so it’s pretty easy to stick with it. (Worth mentioning here that I skip the fasting days.)

It’s time for the weekly Friday Faves party! This is where I share some of my favorite finds from the week and around the web. I always love to hear about your faves, too, so please shout out something you’re loving in the commens section below.

2.21 Friday Faves

Fashion + beauty + random:

Beefsteak! This is one of our favorite local events, and the funds support veterans and military families. They have a live auction (they auctioned a Tesla this year, which was pretty cool!) and silent auction, a delicious dinner (the seafood area this year was amaaaaazing), drinks. and dancing. I always love a lil opportunity to get dressed up and party it up with the Pilot and friends.

Dress was a last-minute Dillards find:<

Sharing my thoughts and review on Darin Olien’s book Superlife and what I learned.

Hi friends! How’s the morning going? I hope you’re having a great day so far. It’s been *slightly* cooler around here lately. Just to the point where the air feels nice and fresh without being too cold. The mornings have been really lovely.

For today’s post, I wanted to share my review and thoughts on Darin Olien’s book, Superlife. Written in Olien’s engaging conversational style, Superlife is a one-of-a-kind comprehensive look at dieting and nutrition, a timeless and essential guide to maintaining the human body and maximizing its potential.

Superlife Book Review

You may know Darin from a couple of places:

1) he was Zac Efron’s knowledgeable sidekick in Down to Earth (which I pretty much spent mentally debating who was more attractive. In the end, I think it’s a tie.)

photo source

2) he’s one of the creators of Shakeology! This is Beachbody’s protein shake, which is packed with superfoods and nutrients. I drank it religiously and loved it for years, but stopped drinking it when I was pregnant with P and never really got back into it. It tastes amazing.

When I saw that Darin had a book, I instantly downloaded it to my Kindle app. I finally had the chance to dive in and finish it, and wow. While a lot of it was info that I already knew from being in the health and wellness space for a while, I still learned a ton. It also was a gentle nudge to get back to some healthy habits that have fallen off

On the military life.. not the blog. You’re not getting rid of me that easily 😉 

After 22 years, the Pilot is officially retired from the military! You can check out the full recap of the fini flight and celebration here.

It’s been almost three weeks, and I have a lot of emotions. I still kind of feel like he’s just on leave right now, and can’t really believe that it’s actually over. It was such a dynamic lifestyle, filled with the highest highs (there’s nothing like that honeymoon feeling when they come back!) and some low lows.

It’s wild (and I’m so thankful to all of you) that so many of you have been here almost our entire military life! When we first moved to Valdosta and I started the blog, we were newly married and I was brand new to this entire lifestyle.

Babies!!

Our military life was puntuacted with pure joy, like the deployment returns and fun squadron events, but also sadness, fear, and worry.

– The incredible feeling when he hugged me for the first time after each deployment.

– When he had been gone for a long time and then felt a bit like a stranger.

– The fun squadron events and late nights drinking wine and chatting with the ladies.

– Talking to him on the phone while he was deployed, but hearing the rocket attack alerts in the background. (It was the voice of a woman with a British accent saying, “Rocket attack. Rocket attack.”)

– Carefully packing and shipping deployment care packages, so excited to check the mail, and cherishing handwritten letters and cards.

– Learning that his plane had been showered with bullets during a particular flight overseas.

When I first met the Pilot, I asked him how often he had to be gone and if he’s ever have to deploy. He told me he probably wouldn’t be gone much at all, and likely wouldn’t have to deploy. (All of my military wife friends can chuckle here.) He was stationed in North Carolina six months later, and was deployed for the first time within a year. He ended up deploying four times.

Military life is constantly being flexible for the unknowns and inherently rigid lifestyle. One of the hardest lessons for me was that the military was always first, no matter what was going on.

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Sharing a recap of the Pilot’s retirement festivities. After just under 22 years in the Air Force, he’s done! 

I’ve started this post a few times and have so much to say, so I ended up splitting it into two posts: a recap of the Pilot’s amazing military career and everything we did to celebrate + my thoughts and experience with the military wife life.

This is a day we’ve been excited about for a while, and we are so grateful that so many friends and family were able to celebrate with us.

A pic of so many people we love who came to celebrate with us:

The Pilot retired a couple of weeks ago, and we had a whole weekend to celebrate this significant milestone. Family started flying in on Wednesday afternoon and evening, so we just caught up with drinks and Zinburger here at the house. Thursday, we had a family pickleball party at Corbett’s with tons of apps and some friendly pickleball competition. We came back here for dinner, and Friday was the big day.

He had the standard “fini flight,” which is your final flight in the squadron. He led a four-ship of some of his closest friends around Tucson, got to fire the gun a few more times, and we were able to head to the flightline to watch him land. Everyone cheered as they flew overhead, it was pretty emotional.

He taxied over to park the jet for the last time, and waved at everyone, Top Gun style.

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Sharing the books I read in January 2025 and if I’d recommend adding them to your collection.

Hi friends! How are you? I hope you had a wonderful weekend. Ours was packed with fun events and this week, the kids are home from school for Rodeo Break. We’re going to enjoy some local adventures and I’m getting the finishing touches together for my new program, which launches next week. Stay tuned!!

For today’s post, I wanted to share a recap of the books I read last month and if I’d recommend adding them to your collection. I was suprised by how my I enjoyed all most all of these and am happy to have found a bit of my reading mojo again in between studying for IHP3.

January 2025 reads

A Happy Pocket Full of Money

I saw this recommended online and downloaded it immediately. I listened to the audio version, which I highly recommend, and can tell I’ll come back to it and listen often. This book is based on the power of wealth consciousness, teaching that true abundance starts from within. It includes themes of quantum physics, gratitude, and visualization, and the author shifts the focus from external wealth accumulation to cultivating a mindset of prosperity, joy, and purpose. This is for anyone who wants to change their relationship with money and manifest a life of abundance.

This book transformed the way I think about a lot of things, including time, energy, presence, and even death. (He said that the spirit doesn’t fear death, but the ego does.) It was interesting because I feel like many of these more woo/manifestation books lack an emphasis on God. This book was surprisingly God-heavy in a way that truly resonated with me. It made me feel more confident in my purpose, the things I geniunely want for my life, and shifted my focus to an abundance and gratitude mindset, which is always appreciated. 10/10 recommend.

From Amazon:

It’s Not Just About the Money

True wealth is not about buckets of cash. True wealth is not about designer clothes. It is not about a new Mercedes. It is not about living in a palatial estate. True wealth, asserts David Gikandi, is about discovering value within yourself and value within other people. It is about a kind of conscious living that incorporates gratitude, a belief in abundance, and the experience of joy.

Based on the recent discoveries of theoretical physics and a close reading of inspirational classics of the last century, Gikandi creates a new model for the creation of personal wealth; a new model that shows readers how to create abundance by saving, giving, offering charity, and building happy relationships.

Take Off Your Glasses an